Renderings: Dodger Stadium renovations will add elevators, new public spaces

The country’s third oldest baseball stadium will get more bars, a new play area, and standing room in the outfield

By Bianca Barragan Jul 24, 2019, 9:10am PDT

Elevators added in the renovation will increase access to the stadium for all fans.

The third-oldest stadium in major league baseball announced plans Tuesday for a significant renovation that will add a new “front door” to Dodger Stadium, where the outfield pavilions are now.

The project is expected to be complete in time for the 2020 season, when the Dodgers are scheduled to host the league’s All-Star game.

The plan is to create an outdoor concourse, the “Centerfield Plaza,” where the outfield pavilions are now. The concourse will link the outfield to the rest of the stadium, and create access to the new space for all stadium-goers, regardless of where their seats are.

The new concourse will have new restrooms, open space for Dodger fans to congregate, enclosed bar areas, play space for kids, standing room, and seating for fans with disabilities. Bridges will connect this new area of the stadium to the rest of it, so all attendees will be able to access and use this new space.

The Dodgers plan to renovate the area directly under the midcentury-cool angular roofs of the outfield and turn into standing room and ADA-compliant seating. (The zig-zag metal roofs will remain.)

The wood benches that are in the outfield now—original from 1962, when the stadium opened—will also remain. Enclosed bar areas will be added to an area of the outfield seating section “that is now a void,” the Dodgers say in a video showing the renovations.

The new Centerfield Plaza will seamlessly link the outfield to the rest of the stadium.

The renovations will add new space but will not change the dimensions of the outfield wall, the Dodgers say.

Elevators are also a part of this addition, increasing the ease of access to the stadium for fans with mobility issues.

The renovations won’t change the 56,000-seat capacity of the stadium, but are designed to “accommodate changing patterns of use,” like adding more areas for people to congregate. They are also a response to “an increasingly walkable community around Dodger Stadium, which has changed patterns of entry,” the Dodgers say.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the renovations are expected to cost $100 million.